Although the thousands of tenant farmers riots in Chongming County were quickly calmed down by Li Weiguo, the plotter behind Xiao Yang, who was behind the scenes, failed to steal chickens and lost a lot of rice. Not only did he fail to cause trouble for Li Weiguo, but he caused his family's property to suffer heavy losses. He even formed an alliance with Xiao Yang to deal with Li Weiguo's landlords complained and blamed him.

In the Xiao family mansion on Zhongjie, in the study, Xiao Yang was lying on the Grand Master's chair with a sick look on his face. He was very sick and was so angry that he had been in the officialdom for decades, but he could not beat Li Weiguo, a young man who had just entered the officialdom. His old face was thrown to Mars, how could he not be angry?

At this time, the butler of the Xiao family who was going out to inquire about the situation came in to report.

"Master, you have found out clearly." The housekeeper said respectfully: "The labor-for-relief mentioned by the county magistrate is to let the tenants repair the dams and houses destroyed by the flood, and the county government provides money and grain."

Listening to the servant's report, Xiao Yang's brows gradually tightened and he gritted his teeth and said, "Those lowly unruly people who resisted the land rent were dissatisfied with Wang Hua and openly smashed and looted the landlords of various families. This is equivalent to public rebellion. Li Weiguo's stinky brat not only did not punish these unruly people, but now he still had to use labor for relief to help these unruly people. It's really outrageous. I'm so angry!"

Bang!

The tea bowl fell to the ground, and the porcelain piece could fly several meters outside the window, which shows how angry Xiao Yang was at this moment.

"Don't calm down, don't hurt your body." The housekeeper hurriedly comforted: "The Li boy is just a clown. Although he defeated the master, he is like Sun Wukong who can never climb out the Five Finger Mountain of Tathagata Buddha, and he will not be able to change the fate of his body and head in the end. Didn't the master already do anything in the account book? He just needs to ask the Governor General of Liangjiang to send someone to imprison him as soon as possible."

Xiao Yang looked up at the butler, and after he said this, he felt much better, and said proudly: "That's right! Master, how can he find out the debt he has done? The memorial to Governor Liangjiang has been handed over, for a month or as long as half a month. Governor will punish him for a crime of corruption and bribery, and put him in prison and question him."

He paused and continued, "This kid is really hateful. First, he took back the food for the disaster relief that I had spoken to. Yesterday, he deliberately kept his troops and sat down and watched the untouchables smash and rob our Xiao family, causing me to lose tens of thousands of taels of silver. I wish I could peel his skin and slash his tendons. If I just put him in jail and question him, I wouldn't relieve my hatred. If I didn't teach him a lesson, I couldn't swallow this anger!"

The housekeeper thought for a while and suggested: "The old slave has a plan, but he can let the master go and cooperate with the master's fake account plan to implement it. Maybe it is not impossible for the Governor to directly order him to behead him."

"Oh, let's go?" Xiao Yang looked at the butler. The strong general had no weak soldiers. Naturally, the butler of the Xiao family was not Yiyou. Xiao Yang wanted to know what trick he had and showed an expectation.

The housekeeper smiled well and said, "Although the magistrate of this county is young, he is very smart. He proposed that labor-for-relief can not only appease the untouchables who have lost their homes and land, but also gain the support of the people. If he succeeds, he will firmly be the magistrate of Chongming County."

Xiao Yang frowned and said, "I don't know that this kid is cunning. If he wins over the people's hearts, it will be difficult for him to die even if there is a fake account. I heard that this kid has the support of foreigners behind him, and he will probably give him a chance to turn things around if he can't beat him to death. At that time, it is not impossible for foreigners to interfere with him and save him. At that time, I may be in trouble."

"Don't worry, Master, I will definitely prevent him from turning over."

The butler smiled confidently and whispered a few times in Xiao Yang's ear. Xiao Yang nodded immediately and showed joy, and then ordered the butler to be fully responsible.

After the tenant farmers riot that day, Li Weiguo promised to give thousands of tenant farmers the opportunity to work for relief. The specific implementation method was to pay the county government to allow these tenant farmers to build river embankments and rebuild their homes. This could not only complete the post-disaster reconstruction tasks stipulated by the state government, but also give these tenant farmers the opportunity to make money by working and kill two birds with one stone.

However, a few days later, the tenant farmers in other parts of Chongming County also knew that the new county magistrate appeased the tenant farmers and used labor for relief. They were also affected by the disaster and were cruelly exploited by the landlords, but they were a little more timid and dared not resist. They learned that the Chongming County Magistrate Li Weiguo and Li loved the people as much as his son and was a great good official, so they gathered together and went to the county government to petition, begging Li Weiguo to give them the opportunity to use labor for relief.

The entire Chongming County has a registered population of 200,000 and a migrant population of tens of thousands. Since most of the former county magistrates and the real power factions in the government office came from local landlords and gentry families, during this major flood, they deliberately destroyed the embankments near the civilian areas, and used despicable and harsh means to protect the landlords. The gentry and wealthy areas were not affected by floods or were less affected by floods. However, the proportion of the population of these rich people is very small, not even a fraction of the total population, and all of them are only a few thousand, while the disaster-stricken civilians are as high as 200,000. After hearing about the county government's plan to use labor for relief, these people naturally did not want to miss it, and asked Li Weiguo to give them the opportunity to use labor for relief.

"Young Master, there are nearly 10,000 more people gathered outside the yamen today than yesterday. They all heard about the county government's work-for-relief incidents coming in!" Zhang Xiaoliu hurried into the county government lobby and reported to Li Weiguo, who was reviewing official documents.

Li Weiguo frowned and asked, "How much money is left in the county warehouse?"

"It's less than 20,000 taels!" Zhang Xiaoliu replied by the way: "The household house official said that if this continues, the county government will have no capital turnover within ten days."

Li Weiguo suddenly had a headache. In order to appease the thousands of tenant farmers who were rioting and prevent them from causing trouble, he came up with a brilliant plan to use labor for relief, which was to appease the mob and gain a good reputation for loving the people. However, this good reputation for loving the people was not so easy. As the people in Chongming County spread the news of the county government's work for relief, a large number of refugees flocked to the county government and asked the county government to give them the opportunity for labor for relief.

Seeing the silver flowing out like flowing in the county treasury in just a few days, now there are less than 20,000 taels of silver left, but if you have to appease tens of thousands of mouths, you may have to declare "bankruptcy" within ten days.

"Call the Domain Officials from Hufang here!"

At the order of Li Weiguo, he called the household placard.

As the name suggests, one of the six officials in the county government offices has a similar function as the six central ministries of the court. It is a county-level minor official who is in charge of all the Dingkou, money, grain, and taxes in a county-level official.

The household lord in Chongming County is named Wu Yong, and he is the only minor official who is currently available under Li Weiguo. Due to the intentional difficulties of the chief clerk Xiao Yang and others, all five minor officials in the six rooms of the county government took sick leave, and only Wu Yong returned to the county government to help.

At first, Li Weiguo did not believe in Wu Yong, thinking that the other party was an undercover agent sent by Xiao Yang on purpose. Later, he sent Zhang Xiaoliu to investigate secretly and found out that Wu Yong and Xiao Yang were not from the same group, and they were quite talented, and had a very good reputation in Chongming County.

Soon, Wu Yong, the clerk of the household house, came to the lobby and greeted Li Weiguo.

"What instructions do you have to call the minor official here?"

Li Weiguo glanced at Wu Yong and saw that he looked tired. He thought it was because he was too tired to be responsible for the work-for-relief work, so he said, "I have worked hard in the Wuhu House these days. Please sit down, come and have tea."

Wu Yong told his gratitude and sat down. His servants brought him tea. After hearing Li Weiguo explain his purpose, he hurriedly said: "My Lord, the strategy of using work for relief is very correct. However, our Chongming County was seriously affected this time, affecting most of the area and 70,000 to 80,000 people. The court's disaster relief funds were deducted and misappropriated. In fact, the money and food in the county government were 70,800 yuan. The remaining ones can help at most 10,000 people. Now tens of thousands of people have gathered outside, and I am afraid the county government cannot bear it. It is admirable that the adults care about the people. Today's affairs have been completed and they are expected to understand."

It would be strange if the people understand it?

Li Weiguo smiled bitterly. If it doesn't matter normally, it would be easy to persuade the people to resign. But the situation is different now. These people have suffered from floods and are living on the streets, not having enough food or clothing, and fighting for a steamed bun is enough to trigger a big bloody crime. At this time, the people will not reason with you in order to survive. Unless you give them the opportunity to survive with work-for-relief, they will not understand you even if you say the truth. Instead, they will hate you.

This is human nature!

Li Weiguo shook his head and asked, "I want to save everyone, but I wonder why Wuhufang teaches me?"

Wu Yong looked at Li Weiguo in surprise, and his expression suddenly became complicated. He didn't understand why Li Weiguo insisted so much, was he overestimating his abilities or was he really thinking about the people, and didn't know how to answer for a while.

Li Weiguo didn't know what Wu Yong was thinking. Seeing him dazed, he thought the other party had no choice, so he suggested: "Chongming County is a superior county, and there should be a lot of taxes in a year. It is better to impose taxes next year on landlords and merchants in advance to maintain the policy of safeguarding the people with labor for relief. What do Wu Hufang think?"

Wu Yong came back to his senses and smiled bitterly: "The lord is deeply impressed by this method. However, the lord is just a new arrival and still doesn't understand the tax collection situation in Chongming County. To be honest, the taxes in this county have been prepaid for ten years in advance. Now, let alone the people refuse to pay taxes, even the landlords and merchants are determined not to pay the money."

"Ah puff...cough cough cough..."

Li Weiguo sprayed out a sip of tea, coughed for a while, his face was full of surprise and then became angry, and he roared: "It's outrageous! These dog officials, a county magistrate, have only served as three years for their term. They actually paid ten years of taxes in advance, and they are lawless!"

Although Wu Yong looked resentful, he had been in the officialdom for many years and knew the twists and turns, so he explained briefly: "Stop the anger! Although it is illegal to say that the prepayment of tax collection has always been a practice in various places. Our Chongming County has been deficit since the first southern tour of Kangxi. The first thing that a successive county magistrate took office was to fill the deficit for the previous county magistrate. After two rounds, the deficit has become increasingly large. After dozens of county magistrates, he has now lost nearly 800,000 taels of silver, and can only be filled with prepayment of tax collection. Our county has been prepaid for ten years, although it is a bit exaggerated, but not the most exaggerated. I heard that some county magistrates in Sichuan have been in advance for 20 to 30 years later."

After listening to Wu Yong's explanation, Li Weiguo gradually calmed down. Thinking that the entire Qing Dynasty was already so bad that it could not be broken anymore, the upper beam was not straight, the lower beam was crooked, and the Chongming county was naturally no exception.

Originally, Li Weiguo planned to pay a year-on-year tax to provide disaster relief, but now it seems that it is not feasible. Xiao Yang, a local tyrant, secretly stumbling, the landlords and merchants will definitely not cooperate.

It seems that I can only find a way out by myself.

After talking to Wu Yong for a while, Li Weiguo discovered that the seven major landlord forces in Chongming County were not monolithic. In fact, they were divided into two opposing forces due to their interests.

Although the Su, Zhou, Zan and Yan families were big landlords, as Xiao Yang has always held the rights of the county government over the years, more interests have been distributed to the other Xiao, Lu and Huang families. These three families have a marriage relationship with each other. With the help of the government, the Su, Zhou, Zan and Yan families have secretly suppressed the Su, Zhou, Zan and Yan families and annexed their land, which has caused tension in the relationship between the two parties.

"Is it possible to let the Su, Zhou, Zan and Yan families fall to me?" Li Weiguo looked at Wu Yong and asked suddenly.

Wu Yong was stunned at first, and then tentatively said: "What do you mean by pulling one and hitting one?"

Li Weiguo nodded and said, "That's what he meant!"

Wu Yong thought about it and said, "Although the Su, Zhou, Zan and Yan's four families are also landlords, they have been suppressed by the Xiao, Lu and Huang's three families for many years and have suffered a lot of land losses. Now they are basically doing business. If adults can relax some policies and give Su, Zhou, Zan and Yan's four families some business opportunities, it is possible to make them turn to adults or even defect to adults."

Li Weiguo smiled and said, "I don't have anything else, but there are indeed some business opportunities."

Wu Yong also felt energetic immediately and immediately volunteered: "Since that's the case, I was the one who helped me to help you with my elders!"
Chapter completed!